MANILA, Philippines - "It will be frank, challenging, realistic but hopeful," Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) described President Rodrigo Duterte's second State of the Nation Address (SONA) to be delivered today, July 24, 2017 at the Plenary Hall of the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City.

The traditional ceremony will start at 3:30 p.m. as the president will arrive by air or land. He will be accorded by the AFP Chief-of-Staff, together with the Sergeant-at-Arms of the Senate and House of Representatives, who will escort the President towards the rear entrance as they walk past the honor guards.

After which, the joint session of 17th Congress will be called to order and the national anthem will be sung by Monaliza Adam Mangelen, a staff member of the House of Representatives' Human Resource Management Service.

Then, an invocation will be done before the President descends to the rostrum to deliver his SONA.RELATED STORIES

The President’s SONA is expected to start at 4:00 p.m. The speech is drafted in English which the President is comfortable with, but His Excellency, like last year, might deliver some off-the-cuff remarks.

"If read straight should take approximately 50 minutes; given there will be pauses for applause and off-the-cuff remarks, the speech may take about an hour and thirty minutes," Presidential Spokeperson Ernesto Abella said.

Last year, Duterte was observed having a hard time reading from the teleprompter which caused him some ad libs because he had gotten tired of reading his prepared speech.

With this, the president is expected to finish his speech around 5:30 p.m.

LIVE STREAM AND COVERAGE

The SONA 2017 will be aired via live stream on the government's channel PTV, Presidential Communications Facebook page, and RTVM YouTube channel. The hashtag #DuterteSONA2017 will be used for social media postings.

Other media outlets and top news organizations ABS-CBN, GMA-7, TV5 and CNN Philippines are expected also to provide their own live streaming of SONA 20017 speech and updates.

With the theme "A Comfortable Life for All", the speech is believed to resonate better with more Filipinos. This theme is supported by the Administration’s three key agenda—prosperity for all, law and order, and peace—which categorize the positive changes felt by the people.

It will be rendered in broad strokes reviewing past achievements, stating the present situation and announcing future prospects.

In the past year, the Duterte administration has focused its efforts to combat crime and illegal drugs. A total of 63,926 anti-drug operations were conducted, netting 86,933 drug personalities and 1.3 million surrenderers in the first year of the Duterte administration.

For the first time in recent Philippine history, the President will submit his Administration's proposed 2018 national budget, worth P3.767-trillion, on the day of the SONA itself, with the biggest chunk allotted for education, infrastructure development, and health care.